Thursday, November 16, 2006

Jews Love: Christians

Or they should. According to Mobius of Jewschool they certainly love us. Or Israel. But who, aside from Ahmadinejad and DK (l'havdil*) think that anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are different? Really.

In all seriousness though, I can't help but wonder what this means for Orthodox/traditionally observant Jews. Basically, a Lutheran woman just won a religious discrimination case where she claimed that she was being discriminated against because she refused to work on her Sabbath (in her case, Sunday). For those who are unaware, many traditionally observant Jews do not work, or perform any of the 39 prohibited categories*** of action on the Sabbath, which is defined as sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night (when you can see three stars in the sky).

*L'havdil is a statement that means, basically, I am using these two together, and they may have some similarities, but you should not really compare them. It is generally used in a religious context, when comparing (or not) religious to secular people/ideas/etc.

** The 39 prohibited categories are known in Hebrew as the "Avot Melachot" a single one is a "melacha." These categories come from Exodus 31, where it states "You must keep the sabbath;" lists the activities that were done in the building of the tabernacle, and then finishes with "the Israelites should thus keep the sabbath." Commentators took this to mean that "keeping the sabbath" entailed abstaining from these labors, and used the process of exegesis to tease out what behaviors/actions could be considered as "melachot." That is why I don't use electricity on Shabbes.

It has yet to be proven to me that Zionism is Jewish in nature, i.e. that it has some sort of substantial basis in the corpus of Jewish texts and is not merely a lame attempt to emulate 19th century European nationaist movements.I feel that there are three seperate and distinct sentiments: anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism. Anti-Judaism is an opposition to the religious and/or cultural identity, anti-Semitism is a hatred based on racist/racialist ideology, and anti-Zionism is an opposition to the state of Israel - may it be smashed speedily in our days, amen.

Clearly lumping anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism together in on space is part of the vast world wide Zionist conspiracy to rule the world and allow for the mass murder of civilians...oh wait... they are two different things that are often abused by those who proclaim themselves as such or are given such a title by others.

I would be called anti-Zionist from time to time, and as a proud Jew I doubt I would be considered anti-Semitic...yet that is what is being insinuated when I say I can't stand for what the Israeli government is doing...

It would be fine if I stood up and said that about the Bush administration but if it is about Israel...well then I am an anti-Semite.

Commentators took this to mean that "keeping the sabbath" entailed abstaining from these labors, and used the process of exegesis to tease out what behaviors/actions could be considered as "melachot." That is why I don't use electricity on Shabbes.